Opinion: Unions Against Cheap Booze

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... the net ... the board ... for ... welcome back to Opinion Journal I'm Mary Kissel that was a clip from a meeting in Pennsylvania ... where union reps like the one that you just turn a really mad ... at the state's governor wants to private eyes state run liquor stores and make Blues cheaper ... Geez we can't have that ... an Institute senior fellow Steve Malanga joins me now ... not exactly normal rate is sixteen ... you know especially since Pennsylvania is one of them very very few states than actually has its own state run liquor stores ... and that probably all you need to know about this object ... is that the people who are perhaps most worried about this privatization liquor stores in New Jersey ... because privately owned liquor stores New Jersey along the border ... get about fifteen percent of their sales from Pennsylvanians and I was staying in ... the ... shop in stores where you actually selections in gold prices during the studio to get people go anywhere for free cheap alcohol so ... so why why Saddam there taking on this play now because it's been tried in the past and Spain has been tried in the past one a couple of reasons number one ... is is one of the few states with this kind of dysfunctional system my ... people pay to the state polls show they needed on if you haven't read like online sites with the idea of what wine cycling Robert Parker's wife that all people who live in Pennsylvania complain that they wish to live somewhere else ... I still wanted bigger sales ... so I know he sees this as an opportunity to open up a marketplace which inevitably of course brings not fewer jobs of the new guidance suggests a button actually brings more jobs it brings lower costs which brings investment in other ways all kinds of things which of course you know the governor would like to see both of the political influence of the out up a home on the and the unions combined the government has strong nasty I downplayed the union concerns is that man was obviously very upset clearly worried about jobs including his own including his own but is is that a real ... wherein mean are there benefits that the unions can in Pennsylvania from the state run liquor stores that they're just not Guinea get it if it's privatized well because of course the stores don't compete ... week said ... that the book essentially with other state stores ... on the union has a lot basically on the stores and is very rare to see unionized liquor stores in ... the most pleasing outlook in part because our allies chains mostly their independent stores ... panel unionize once or so the union sees basically at like five thousand people working in the stores across the lane to ... that essentially one that ... you know network ... doesn't exist anywhere else so there's legislation is pending in the state house and doesn't have a good chance of going through I mean the key starters for watching this video one will house ... the house has already passed legislation the Senate is the problem that should be noted that the senators Republican in the governor's Republican ... and that there are Republican senators who are not necessarily in favor of this if this does not pay us it will be because the Pennsylvania Republican party has refused to basically vote for the free market and how they use a RR to fight very hard and there they they ran ads that show the little girl mourning her dead father was killed by a drunk driver ... on ... going a little early and accurate okay Colleen at the heartstrings sealed but politically ... a very savvy thing to do ... on it what it says that the ... Republicans ... be able to eat it enunciated why this is economically good for the state this this privacy and I think this is not that I'm on a very tough argument from the point of view without polls show the company's June favorite and by the way the claim in that span ... the Pennsylvania has some of the lowest alcohol related deaths in the country is absolutely untrue ... I'll probably the driving test in Pennsylvania are above the national average according to statistics I saw in neighboring New Jersey with private sector stores as the second lowest in the country so this is I don't even understand how they're allowed to make claims like that ever so demonstrably false ... you know on TV ... well it's gonna be ... a fascinating fight to Wyatt's in New Jersey liquor stores in Pennsylvania Missouri now watching ... the Manhattan Institute senior fellow Steve Malanga thanks so much for the update